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Liverpool 0-1 Manchester United

“The smallest of our problems today was our centre forward,” insisted Klopp. “Roberto Firmino again played a really good game. He can play this position, he is a real centre forward when he plays there.”

Yet anyone thinking all is rosy in the Liverpool striking department would only have to look at the sight of on-loan centre defender Steven Caulker being sent up front as a makeshift forward in the final moments against both Arsenal and United.

Liverpool's actual number nine, £32.5m Christian Benteke lest we forget, was given just eight minutes more than Caulker to try to affect the game against a team he had scored against in his last three appearances.

Played with the kids at Exeter and benched for the big Premier League clashes, Liverpool's top goalscorer this season (7) is clearly not fancied by the manager. Not yet at least.

The great unknown of Reds' strikers is of course Daniel Sturridge, he of the December pre-season.

Klopp seems unimpressed by how his body has handled that and the German's attitude to the 26-year-old has noticeably hardened recently.

For a man who normally likes to talk, “No” has been the one word he will say on Sturridge. It speaks volumes.

But where could the England man go? No-one will take a chance on an unfit Sturridge while a fit one walks into Liverpool's starting line-up oozing clinical. The runes however are not good.

Divock Origi will be a pacy option once his hamstring is less hamstrung but he's more about moments than method so far and Danny Ings will be like a new signing but not until summer.

Post-United Klopp seemed adamant he would not be acting now: “We have to work with what we have. We could have had Christian Benteke in the starting line-up, but he was on the bench. It's not only finishing; you need a few ways to play.

“I don't think we missed a striker.”

Fans might respectfully disagree but everything of course is predicated on who Klopp believes he might be able to get, either in these last two weeks of January or potentially in the summer.

In Alan Partridge terms, it is okay to live in the caravan in the garden for a while if you know you'll be moving into the big house in just a few months.